Episode 115
Beginning * The session starts off with the dome nearly at the end of its time. Lucius asks Vahlka if she could meet him outside for a moment so they could talk (effectively making the dome of Tiny Hut finally disappear). * Lucius proceeds to ask Vahlka what "faith means to her", if somewhat uncertain about approaching her about it. After a moment Vahlka responds, "It's not about perfect attendance to services or how much money you throw into a little plate, or holy rites, or meditating every day, it's kind of about what you do. It's aspiring to be better, nobler, more kind than you are currently. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others, even when there's nobody who's going to tell you what a hero you are." * Lucius accepts the answer and continues to ask how one prays, which he elaborates might sound like a stupid question but it wasn't like he was a devout person before this. Vahlka says it's a personal matter and that there's not any wrong way, but advises him against making any kind of demands and that it'd likely be the only "wrong" way to do it. * After a moment Lucius requests Vahlka could watch his back while he goes and attempts to pray to Bahamut, although he's unsure if the prayer can even reach the platinum dragon. * Godfrey interjects, warning both Vahlka and Lucius that THE OOZE may come back. Olivia wakes up and has taken herself out of Barkley's death grip. * Godfrey asks Vahlka if she's talked to Deacon at all, but Deacon is literally right there. The entire party has convened with one another once more except Olivia, who lays face down on the ground. * Deacon apologizes with the very helpful encouragement of Barkley. Godfrey asks if he was able to find a cure while in Grindwall, but Deacon responds that his party didn't and had to leave prematurely. Deacon also says that the werewolves there seem to be a different strain. Godfrey at least seems somewhat satisfied by this answer, but who knows when it comes to grandpa. * Deacon warns the party that any medication that he's under before he transforms disappear when he turns, so they can't prevent the change from happening during a full moon. In other words, he needs to be drugged after finishing turning into a werewolf. * Barkley re-iterates that she's disappointed in Deacon, so he apologizes again. Godfrey assures Deacon that maybe once this is over with, they can try to find something to suppress or cure him. Vahlka wakes up Olivia and everyone gets prepared to leave. * Vahlka catches up Deacon about the Sara conversation. They discuss the matter that Sara was a slave and sold/her mouth shut, and that her brother was killed. Deacon wasn't aware that she even had a brother, and realizes that there was a lot of stuff she didn't tell him. * The Arsonists approach the bottom of the three spires, of which resemble familiar strange architecture to the city that they saw in the Void. They see a large orb of webbing from which Bahamut is suspended and the walkways to the three towers are connected are the only way to that orb. * Barkley finds a safe place to eat the Heroes Feast. Barkley attempts to pickpocket Lucius, rolls a natural 1, and is found before she pilfers anything. * Godfrey says that Lucius' eye is very cool and Lucius is incredibly paranoid about it. Godfrey says some cursed shit. * The Arsonists finally go inside the first tower and find themselves in a white marble room. The doors close behind them. The floor is decorated with a circular symbol that has three points, a star on each of those three points, and a galaxy scene in the center (a moon + sun combined). On the other side of the room there's another large set of double doors which has writing on them. The writing says: "Beyond the Black Gate, we are all held by threads". This is confirmed that this place is similar to something Vahlka saw in a dream. * The door opens. Everyone ties themselves together with rope and enter the hallway. PART ONE The Arsonists confront their pasts to face their future. * Transcript 1 - Minerva and Lucius * Transcript 2 - Jameson and Godfrey * Transcript 3 - Haven and Olivia * Transcript 4 - ??? and Deacon * Transcript 5 - Maria and Barkley * Transcript 6 - Ursula and Vahlka PART TWO The Arsonists, one by one, disappear into memory. * After the emotional trials from the last series of rooms, the party arrives in a circular room that is similar to the others before it but not identical. The tile pattern on the floor has changed, only displaying three stars (the sun+moon pattern is gone) positioned in a triangle. The band on the outer edge of the stars has a night sky pattern, edged by floor-to-ceiling windows. From the vantage point, they’re all on the second floor of the second tower. Ahead of them is another hall that leads up to the third floor of the second tower. * There is another door with writing on it. After some trouble translating the text, it reads: “Hall of Visions: learn to find yourself”. * Vahlka attempts to stalk back into the previous room to kill her mother, but can't. There is only forward. ** "Deja Vu" - Lucius ** "Mirror, Mirror" - Godfrey ** "Angel of Mercy" - Olivia ** "Sanctuary From Fear" - Deacon ** "Freedom & Choice" - Barkley ** "Wolf at the Door" - Vahlka PART THREE * The party, now complete, finds themselves in a long hallway this time. Vahlka climbs onto the flying carpet with Deacon. Godfrey is the only adult remaining. * They move ahead to another set of double doors with a fair bit of writing with it. The writing states: "THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS. I JUST NEVER GET THIS RIGHT. WHY ARE YOU HERE?" They open the door. * The floor is identical to the hall of visions with another chair in the center. The person sitting in the chair looks like Lucius the way he first arrived, arms crossed and posture hunched forward. He's staring down at the floor. * On the far side of the room, instead of a door there's a platform. On the platform there's three thrones, which the chair is facing. Embedded into the tile in front of the thrones are is one of the most complicated arcane circles anyone has ever seen. Hypatia's circles pale in comparison in complexity. * Young Lucius approaches the adult version of himself, confused. * The adult Lucius stands up which makes the chair disappear. His hands move from crossed to put on either side of his head. He mutters, "I can't get this right. I don't get why I can't get this right. Things always go wrong, somehow, and I don't know why." * Young Lucius asks what he's talking about and the entity stares at him. The older Lucius says, "You're not supposed to be here. I never get this right. Something always goes wrong, I wasn't made for this." * He turns and starts pacing. When he gets to the end of the room, he turns into Godfrey and continues to pace. "I'm supposed to learn but I never get it right," it says. * "I'm supposed to know how to do this but I never get it right," it continues. It gets to the other end of the room and turns into Olivia and continues to pace. Every time it gets to the other side of the room it shifts into the next person in the cycle, continuing to mutter repeatedly. * Olivia asks what always happens, the entity cycles back to Vahlka and sits in the middle of the room. Barkley walks up to the entity and puts a hand on its shoulder and asks what it's trying to do. It says, "I'm supposed to stop you or trap you or stop you but it never works and I don't know why. I just don't understand people enough. I wasn't made to do this." * Barkley asks what it was made to do. It looks at its hands before getting up and begins to pace again. It repeats to itself and asks how'd they get here, and why they're here again. It was apparently always here, for ages, since the building was made. * Apparently, it was programmed to stop people from reaching the throne room. * Olivia asks what it is, the entity replies that it thinks it's a spell. It was apparently told to do something differently than its normal purpose, which was to not let anyone in. The original purpose of the "spell" was more simple, although it doesn't remember much except that it could open doors and repeat information. * Lucius asks if it can go back to its original directive, the program tells him that it can't. It was told to do it by the mistress of the castle, "at least when it was a castle" although it isn't sure. Lucius asks if it can go back to the original purpose, it says it can't and has to do what it's told. * The program laments again why it can't send people away by manufacturing the memories of those who come inside of it. Godfrey says it's because people have free will, Lucius says it's because they had one another and the only reason why they got through was because they were together. * The program, as Barkley, doesn't understand what that means and that it's supposed to learn things. Lucius says that bonds can't be learned. This is where the party learns that there are many, many other programs similar - some in the Void, some in the feywild, some elsewhere, some corrupted and the program can't "talk to them anymore". * Lucius asks if it's lonely, the program responds that it doesn't know what he means. * Lucius asks again if they can get through, the program says it doesn't have much choice in the matter. The program assumes they want their bodies back, everyone confirms that they would very much like that. * The arcane circle lights up which makes the entity disappear, melting into the floor. There is a flash of light and everyone is in their old bodies again. * Olivia tentatively steps over the circle to gauge what will happen and nothing does. As they're about to leave, they see a two-dimensional grey figure. The program says, "I can't stop you from going any further, but I can't understand why I couldn't." * The program reveals that the party, sans Lucius, has met something similar to it before. A corrupted program, as it were. This alludes to Hadernyx. * Everyone walks towards the thrones where, off the balcony, there's a strand of webbing heading up presumably to Bahamut. The session ends.